Horrific story: NYC man tortured as punishment ‘for being gay’

This story is just awful. It’s really almost indescribable how bad it is. Read the whole thing. This happened in New York City, which is apparently the new hotbed for homophobia and gay-bashing:

He was told there was a party at a brick house on Osborne Place, a quiet block set on a steep hill in the Bronx. He showed up last Sunday night as instructed, with plenty of cans of malt liquor. What he walked into was not a party at all, but a night of torture — he was sodomized, burned and whipped.

All punishment, the police said Friday, for being gay.

There were nine attackers, ranging from 16 to 23 years old and calling themselves the Latin King Goonies, the police said. Before setting upon their 30-year-old victim, they had snatched up two teenage boys whom they beat, the police said — until the boys — one of whom was sodomized with a plunger — admitted to having had sex with the man.

The attackers forced the man to strip to his underwear and tied him to a chair, the police said. One of the teenage victims was still there, and the “Goonies” ordered him to attack the man. The teenager hit him in the face and burned him with a cigarette on his nipple and penis as the others jeered and shouted gay slurs, the police said. Then the attackers whipped the man with a chain and sodomized him with a small baseball bat.

This is disturbing on so many levels. Reading the details gave me a sick feeling. It’s almost starting to feel like it’s open season on the gays.

Again, we have national leaders from Barack Obama to John McCain to Newt Gingrich telling the world we’re not equal. (And, yes, for all the sweet talk we get from Obama, he does not think we are fully equal, you know, because “god is in the mix.”) There are plenty of New York City pols who espouse hatred towards the gay community, starting with State Senator Ruben Diaz, Sr., who represents the Bronx. We also routinely get castigated as evil by religious leaders from those morally bankrupt abettors of child rapists in the Catholic Church to the Mormons who lie for the lord and baptize the dead in other religions to the deeply flawed and hateful right-wing evangelicals.

LGBT Americans are not equal. And, apparently, that message is getting through loud and clear to bullies and other would-be gay bashers. They’re translating that message into the warped idea that not equal means lesser and the LGBT community is fair game.

Joe Sudbay
On October 27, 2010, Joe was one of five bloggers who interviewed President Obama. Joe is a DC-based political consultant with over twenty-five years of experience at both the state and federal level. Joe has managed political operations and legislative efforts for both candidates and issues-based organizations. For seven years, he was the Director of State Legislation at Handgun Control, Inc. He served as that organization's first Political Director during the 2000 cycle. Joe is a graduate of the University of Maine School of Law. In addition, he has a Masters in Public Administration from Lehigh University and received his B.A. from the University of New Hampshire. Joe also has a fun dog, Petey, a worthy successor to Boomer, who got Joe through eight years of Bush and Cheney. Joe likes to think he is a world class athlete having finished the 2005 Chicago Marathon in the time of 4:10. He has completed six other marathons as well -- and is still determined to break the four hour mark.